natdempk's recent activity

  1. Comment on Spotify Wrapped 2019 is out! What were your top artists? in ~music

    natdempk
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    I also really like Lilo by her.

    I also really like Lilo by her.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Spotify Wrapped 2019 is out! What were your top artists? in ~music

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    Plantasia is fantastic. Do you know anything else like it?

    Plantasia is fantastic. Do you know anything else like it?

    3 votes

  3. Comment on The PDF version of SQL Performance Explained by Markus Winand is free until Monday with code "CyberMon19" in ~comp

    natdempk
    Link
    This book is great. It's really easy to write slow SQL accidentally. This book helps you avoid problems by giving you the right mental models to understand abstractly what SQL engines are actually...

    This book is great. It's really easy to write slow SQL accidentally. This book helps you avoid problems by giving you the right mental models to understand abstractly what SQL engines are actually doing under the covers and how you can make queries fast. Cannot recommend enough, especially as the book is written from a very practical standpoint and isn't very long.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Why does Celeste feel so good to play? in ~games

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    I actually didn’t have an issue with the diagonal inputs at all and I played through the entire thing with an Xbox one controller using the joystick. I’m not saying it wasn’t an issue for you, but...

    I actually didn’t have an issue with the diagonal inputs at all and I played through the entire thing with an Xbox one controller using the joystick. I’m not saying it wasn’t an issue for you, but I never found diagonal inputs to be an issue.

    I’m not sure what you mean by the second point? You can adjust your positioning in mid air precisely in Celeste also. The only time you are really locked in is during an air-dash.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Nintendo pulls Switch game A Dark Room from eShop after dev reveals he sneaked in a basic code-editor as an "Easter egg" in ~games

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    A lot of this really comes down to how this is implemented in my opinion. If by "Ruby interpreter" we mean a hard-coded list of commands that this system translates to Ruby-like operations which...

    A lot of this really comes down to how this is implemented in my opinion. If by "Ruby interpreter" we mean a hard-coded list of commands that this system translates to Ruby-like operations which don't expose any of the underlying Ruby language, then this is probably safe/useless for hacking the switch. If all you can do is math and drawing lines on the screen, this is probably useless.

    If this accidentally exposes any of the meta-programming aspects of Ruby or even certain parts of the underlying language, then this is basically a way for people to hack into the switch readily. Even the limited subset of commands approach may fall down if the author has forgotten about certain aspects, or even accidentally exposed insecure functions. For example with a quick Google search I found this post which details a Ruby interpreter escape using essentially just printing a formatted String:
    https://eyalitkin.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/mruby-vm-escape-step-by-step/

    It isn't hard to imagine that many more things like this are lurking in anything that exposes Ruby directly. It's notoriously hard to get this right in dynamic languages, as they often offer tools for re-programming parts of the language itself, and Ruby is no exception here.

    Entirely speculating here, but it's highly unlikely the author has covered all their bases here unless they omitted all of Ruby, and just built a new independent thing safely from the ground up. If they haven't done that, then this basically guarantees that at some point in time this becomes an exploit vector for the Switch, but who knows what they actually did.

    12 votes

  7. Comment on Technology is Heroin in ~tech

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, but I was really looking to bootstrap my knowledge here and learn collaboratively with someone else. By taking a charitable view, and actually got a...

    I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, but I was really looking to bootstrap my knowledge here and learn collaboratively with someone else. By taking a charitable view, and actually got a great and honest response from Gaywallet.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Technology is Heroin in ~tech

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the great reply :) I agree it's definitely something that needs to be studied more, and I'm definitely not saying diversity of activities is bad/harmful. Was mostly just asking all of...

    Thanks for the great reply :) I agree it's definitely something that needs to be studied more, and I'm definitely not saying diversity of activities is bad/harmful. Was mostly just asking all of these out of curiosity so it's great to hear the details of where things are at.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on Technology is Heroin in ~tech

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    Out of curiosity, how much does "The Shallows" go into the science and the studies behind the theory? I would genuinely like to learn more about this, but I'm wary of things that stray too far...

    Out of curiosity, how much does "The Shallows" go into the science and the studies behind the theory? I would genuinely like to learn more about this, but I'm wary of things that stray too far into speculation.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Technology is Heroin in ~tech

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    That's very interesting to me, do you know of any of the studies around this that I could look at? I've definitely heard things about ADHD diagnoses increasing over time, but I've heard mixed...

    Population style studies show an increase in autism and ADHD with the advent of technology. While it's not moral to perform a proper double blind study on kids and assign them to tech/no tech groups, you can draw some inferences by combining this information with information from other sources, such as brain scans, of people utilizing technology the way it is currently consumed.

    That's very interesting to me, do you know of any of the studies around this that I could look at? I've definitely heard things about ADHD diagnoses increasing over time, but I've heard mixed things about the cause. I've heard everything from parents just having unrealistic expectations of children today, to the structure of play and children's activities changing, to technology changing, to pharmaceutical companies pushing medications. I would be curious to hear more about how the population studies control for this.

    Among anyone in the field of neurobiology, if you ask them whether modern apps are causing people to struggle with attention, the answer is a pretty overwhelming yes.

    I think this is another interesting one, do you know of any studies around this? I can imagine that people are definitely interrupted more by technology, does that correspond with a decrease in attention span on non-interrupted tasks?

    I don't disagree that diversity of experience is good, and I think there are definitely some trends here. I definitely had a fair amount of it as a kid as well, and I think it was valuable, but I'm also curious what the science actually says here. I'm really wondering how much is speculation and what has and hasn't been studied as of today.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Technology is Heroin in ~tech

    natdempk
    Link
    Is this true? The author just throws this out there in a photo caption without any citations. I feel like if you’re going to make a claim this wide you need to qualify it. If all those hours in...

    In 2019 multiple studies are showing that prolonged screen time has a damaging -- and perhaps permanent -- effect on developing brains

    Is this true? The author just throws this out there in a photo caption without any citations. I feel like if you’re going to make a claim this wide you need to qualify it. If all those hours in front of a screen are spent reading or something, there’s no way this is true.

    As a child I basically spent every waking hour I could in front of screens and it didn’t have any detrimental effects on me, so I’m always highly skeptical of claims like this.

    7 votes

  12. Comment on Any resources exploring the gap between beginner and top 5% expert in various tech fields? in ~comp

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    Is there any easy place to track the WIP ones? For example say I wanted to contribute to the Java one, where could I find it besides manually going through all the forks?

    Is there any easy place to track the WIP ones? For example say I wanted to contribute to the Java one, where could I find it besides manually going through all the forks?

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Should comments be locked after a topic is inactive for a period of time? in ~tildes

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    Ah this is cool to know, gives more more hope in reddit-style sites than I've had in the past. :)

    Ah this is cool to know, gives more more hope in reddit-style sites than I've had in the past. :)

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Should comments be locked after a topic is inactive for a period of time? in ~tildes

    natdempk
    Link
    I think auto-closing old threads is a pretty big mistake. I get that sites want to have people discussing the most recent things, but it seems to me like there are certain topics where an old...

    I think auto-closing old threads is a pretty big mistake. I get that sites want to have people discussing the most recent things, but it seems to me like there are certain topics where an old thread is the only place to discuss them, or ask follow-up questions with any hope of getting them answered. Another option in those cases is to DM people, but then the DMs just get lost in the ether instead of being searchable in the future.

    The one problem with old threads is that they no longer have an influx of new eyes to respond to any new comments. I think some sort of broader unread tracking system for older content or all content you've participated is a missing component to making old threads work on a reddit-style site.

    16 votes

  15. Comment on Return of the Obra Dinn - Coming Soon (from the dev of Papers, Please) in ~games

    natdempk
    Link
    Fascinated to try this out, if nothing else to just experience the aesthetics of the game and exploring a 3d environment rendered in this retro style.

    Fascinated to try this out, if nothing else to just experience the aesthetics of the game and exploring a 3d environment rendered in this retro style.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    natdempk
    Link
    I've been listening to the new Jungle album For Ever a bunch. For me its not as immediately lovable as their first self-titled album, but its definitely growing on me. I think the sound of the...

    I've been listening to the new Jungle album For Ever a bunch. For me its not as immediately lovable as their first self-titled album, but its definitely growing on me. I think the sound of the original album was more up immediately up my alley, but I enjoy the evolution of their sound as well. You can clearly see the influence of touring and success on the themes of the album as well as the sound. For sure its a solid progression for them, as they had basically done all they could with their older sound on their previous album.

    Another similar album to that in terms of artistic evolution that I've been listening to is Kingdoms In Colour by Maribou State. Worth a listen, Holly Walker shines as a vocalist as usual and Maribou State themselves are no slouches in terms of arrangement and instrumentation.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Did you ever listen to an album so much that, even though you still love it, you can't play it anymore? in ~music

    natdempk
    Link
    I've done this as well. I think a lot of it is that there are a decent number of albums that just fit a specific mood/period in my life, but no longer do. I would say I've basically emotionally...

    I've done this as well. I think a lot of it is that there are a decent number of albums that just fit a specific mood/period in my life, but no longer do. I would say I've basically emotionally worn out albums. Lonerism by Tame Impala is one of these for me. I think it is a fantastic album and I highly recommend it to others, but I can't really listen to it anymore myself.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Advice for those who want a computer science career? in ~comp

    natdempk
    Link
    I think learning how to pick up and understand new technologies quickly and thoroughly has been the most useful to me. To me the most useful way to do this is to start to understand the broader...

    I think learning how to pick up and understand new technologies quickly and thoroughly has been the most useful to me. To me the most useful way to do this is to start to understand the broader technology/computing landscape from the prospective of problems you encounter and then fit things into that landscape as solutions that make different tradeoffs. This way when you need/want to use something new you can see where it fits in quickly, make comparisons to existing systems you know, and highlight the areas where this new thing is different. Being able to understand this landscape and compare different possible solutions at a high level pays off time and time again in real-world engineering.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on Reddit continues its banning spree, r/GreatAwakening has been banned in ~tech

  20. Comment on Reddit continues its banning spree, r/GreatAwakening has been banned in ~tech

    natdempk
    Link Parent
    Steve Huffman (Reddit CEO) has basically said he doesn't want to ban r/the_donald, so I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. As I remember he doesn't think that banning them is going...

    Steve Huffman (Reddit CEO) has basically said he doesn't want to ban r/the_donald, so I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. As I remember he doesn't think that banning them is going to help fix anything in the US etc.

    1 vote